AI alone is no longer a differentiator: What matters is where intelligence鈥痮perates鈥痠nside of a business. As demand volatility increases, fulfillment windows tighten, and customer expectations鈥痳ise,鈥痮rganizations need more than insights or task鈥痑ssistance. They need intelligence inside quotes, product content, service interactions, and campaigns, guiding decisions as they happen and continuously adapting as conditions change.

This shift lays the foundation for a new generation of executional AI, where capabilities evolve from supporting users to actively鈥痬onitoring鈥痜lows,鈥痑nticipating鈥痳isk, and over time acting as intelligent agents within core customer-facing processes.

With the Q1 2026 release of鈥� solutions, 麻豆原创 advances this shift by bringing AI closer to day-to-day customer-facing execution across sales, service, commerce, and engagement. Intelligence now operates closer to where outcomes are realized鈥攈elping organizations protect revenue, reduce friction, and deliver consistent, trusted experiences at scale.

Below, explore more of the highlights from the Q1 2026 release. And for full sub-solution details, see recaps for听,听,听,听, and听.

Optimize revenue streams with confidence

Revenue becomes more reliable when customer intent is captured early and executed consistently across sales and commerce workflows. The execution depends on speed and accuracy: accurate product information, relevant content, and seamless handoffs from inquiry to quote creation. When these are disconnected, teams face delays, manual rework, and missed revenue opportunities.

From customer inquiry to executable quote

• Email to quote with AI:鈥疉utomatically add SKUs from a deal using opportunity and email data with the Microsoft Outlook add-in for 麻豆原创 Sales Cloud. Users can choose to generate a quote, and the quote is quickly created in 麻豆原创 Sales Cloud in just a few clicks. After review, sellers can hit send; it is that easy.  
• Deep research: Accelerate account planning and reviews by synthesizing 麻豆原创 Sales Cloud and 麻豆原创 Service Cloud data with external market intelligence. For example, the deep research capability can deliver a detailed brief that can be used to better understand the account, their industry, and other crucial information like news and SWOT. Sellers will be able to engage prospects and buyers more effectively while customers will have more relevant and personalized information delivered.  
• Media attachments for product descriptions: Use AI to extract details from product documents, such as manuals, spec sheets, and PDFs, and automatically generate or enrich product descriptions in 麻豆原创 Commerce Cloud. This accelerates catalog updates and improves product data quality so that shoppers, search engines, and agentic commerce are rich with the most accurate product descriptions鈥攅nsuring product descriptions are detailed, differentiated, and discovered.

Delivering鈥痳别濒颈补产濒别鈥痵ervice at鈥痵肠补濒别

• Digital Service Agent handoff鈥痜or case creation: Connect every step of the service journey from conversational AI self-service to field resolution so service teams can resolve customer issues鈥痜aster and provide personalized service engagements that build trust.鈥疷sing conversational cues, Digital Service Agent鈥痵ummarizes intent identification for ticket creation while capturing essential information required for handoff to underlying solutions like 麻豆原创 Service Cloud.
• : Give service teams a single, real-time command center in 麻豆原创 Service Cloud, consolidating cases, tasks, and service orders into one view with visual workload insights so agents can prioritize faster, stay on top of commitments, and resolve more issues per day. 
• Retail Intelligence (麻豆原创 Early Adopter Care): Announced at NRF, Retail Intelligence provides one closed-loop, AI-enhanced retail supply chain planning environment that ties together planning, execution, and engagement. The result: human and agentic teams that don鈥檛 just execute tasks but reshape strategies, reimagine retail supply chain planning, and master autonomous growth and lasting differentiation.
  Learn more at the session.

Orchestrating engagement across the customer life cycle

Customer engagement spans browsing,鈥痯urchasing, fulfillment, and service across multiple channels. 麻豆原创 CX connects engagement directly to operational context.鈥�&苍产蝉辫;

• delivers鈥痯ersonalized, AI-personalized communications and interactions across every channel powered by connected customer and operational data all fully integrated across 麻豆原创. Teams鈥痗an鈥痙eliver consistent, intelligent engagement that builds loyalty and drives鈥痓usiness鈥痠mpact.

• :鈥疎xtend conversational analytics to SMS campaigns. A new data context model narrows analysis to the right dataset, returning faster, more precise answers to natural language questions, such as 鈥淲hat was SMS revenue last month?鈥�

• :鈥疨redictively鈥痠dentify鈥痗ontacts鈥痺ho are鈥痩ikely in the next鈥�30 days to engage,鈥痓ecome inactive, or remain inactive,鈥痵o marketers can target outreach鈥痺here it will deliver the strongest results.鈥��&苍产蝉辫;

Accelerate transformation鈥痺颈迟丑鈥痶丑别鈥痑dvanced success plan鈥痜or 麻豆原创 CX

To鈥痑ssist鈥痗ustomers鈥痮n their鈥痶ransformation鈥痡ourneys, 麻豆原创 launched the new Advanced Success Plan in the鈥�. This will鈥痟elp customers increase the value of individual applications, accelerate cloud transformation across 麻豆原创 Business Suite,鈥痑nd enable consistent adoption of new innovations and 麻豆原创 Business AI.

With expanded coverage with additional 麻豆原创 CX solutions, including and , the advanced offering is comprised of three powerful elements:

• Success expert: Regular 麻豆原创 expertise driving strategic customer outcomes
• Adoption guidance: Structured, AI-driven enablement accelerating adoption
• Activation and optimization services: Hands-on services to maximize performance and impact

Check out the鈥痺ebinar鈥痶o learn how the new service offering unlocks more of the transformative value of 麻豆原创 solutions:鈥�.

Intelligence where execution happens鈥�&苍产蝉辫;

With 麻豆原创 Customer Experience, AI moves beyond isolated鈥痑ssistance鈥痶o鈥痮perate鈥痙irectly within business execution flows. Intelligence is embedded where work happens鈥攊nside quotes, product content, service interactions, and campaigns鈥攈elping organizations respond in real time and deliver consistent customer outcomes at scale.

Learn more about 麻豆原创 CX in Q1鈥�2026鈥�&苍产蝉辫;

Read the 麻豆原创 Help documentation to get started with these new capabilities.鈥�&苍产蝉辫;

Balaji Balasubramanian is president and chief product officer for 麻豆原创 Customer Experience and Consumer Industries.鈥�

This isn鈥檛 just a consumer trend; it is reshaping engagement models across industries.

The Q4 2025 (麻豆原创 CX) release propels this transformation further with new out-of-the-box agents designed for customer service and the ability to easily build custom agents with Joule Studio. Additionally, AI features like predictive segmentation and AI-assisted reporting expedite planning and decision-making鈥攆oundational catalysts for future-ready businesses.

With WalkMe Premium now available across 麻豆原创 CX applications, teams can upskill and reskill with in-the-moment guidance. And 麻豆原创 Customer Loyalty Management takes new engagement models to the next level, helping businesses strengthen relationships and drive long-term growth.

Here, explore more of the highlights from the Q4 2025 release. And for full sub-solution details, see recaps for , , , , and .

Better customer engagement with out-of-the box agents and custom tools

With 麻豆原创, customer experience applications, data and AI come together as one鈥攑owered by 麻豆原创 Business Technology Platform. Whether it鈥檚 resolving an issue or managing inventory, CX applications connected to 麻豆原创 ERP keep processes running smoothly. AI agents take it further, by reasoning and acting directly in core processes, turning complexity into clarity. One of the most critical areas is in customer support.

• : Deliver instant and accurate self-service by putting knowledge at customers鈥� fingertips. Deflect common inquiries, resolve complex questions with AI, and escalate seamlessly to human agents when needed鈥攔educing contact center load while improving customer satisfaction.
  
  Digital Service Agent can be combined with , creating one conversational AI that handles the entire journey鈥攆rom product discovery and transaction to post-sales support. Customers can ask questions, get answers, and complete purchases in a single frictionless interaction. Together these agents unlock agentic commerce and intelligent service, which strengthens customer relationships and deliver experiences that truly stand out.

• : Create custom, business-ready AI agents for 麻豆原创 Customer Experience Cloud applications鈥攆ast and without complexity. Joule Studio, a part of , gives developers a powerful low-code, no-code environment to create and deploy AI agents and connect them seamlessly to Joule, 麻豆原创 CX apps and third-party systems. These agents can retrieve information, complete tasks, and run autonomous actions grounded in enterprise data from 麻豆原创 CX, 麻豆原创 Knowledge Graph, and non-麻豆原创 systems.
  
  For example, users can build a sales assistant agent that instantly pulls historical purchase records, analyzes buying patterns, and recommends the most relevant products or offers鈥攈elping sales teams increase conversion rates and shorten sales cycles. Learn how to .

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Boost insights and workforce skilling with AI-powered guidance

AI is no longer optional; it鈥檚 the engine behind smarter, faster customer engagement. As digital experiences raise the bar, customers expect speed, personalization, and simplicity in every interaction. Meeting those expectations requires more than automation. It demands AI-driven insights and skills that scale across the organization.

• : 麻豆原创 is embedding AI upskilling into the core of customer experience applications with WalkMe Premium for 麻豆原创 CX solutions. This solution empowers employees to work smarter and learn faster, driving better outcomes from day one. With real-time, role-based guidance and automation across , , , and , teams can unlock the full potential for 麻豆原创 CX solutions without complexity.

• : Easily generate custom reports and comparisons in 麻豆原创 Emarsys, and uncover campaign and customer insights instantly.

• : Enable service agents in 麻豆原创 Service Cloud to quickly understand key consumption trends for a premise. With AI-generated summaries of consumption graphs, agents can immediately identify usage fluctuations, anomalies, and important patterns to support faster resolution for utilities customers.
• : Check the overall health of the sales pipeline in 麻豆原创 Sales Cloud and display opportunities based on quantity and probability score.
• Promotion and account plan configuration: In , customers can configure promotion types and account plan types, defining scope, levels, spend, and baseline management, in order to enable flexible planning and support future indirect promotions.

• Engagement events: In 麻豆原创 Emarsys, ingest inbound events from external data sources to further enhance segmentation and personalization throughout the journey.
• (pilot): Use predictive AI segments in 麻豆原创 Emarsys to reach audiences that are most likely to engage based on a contact鈥檚 behavior, status, or channel preference.

Build lasting connections with 麻豆原创 Customer Loyalty Management

Customer loyalty is more than a metric; it鈥檚 a long-term strategy for growth. As expectations rise, organizations need solutions that create meaningful, lasting relationships. 麻豆原创 Customer Loyalty Management helps businesses deliver personalized experiences, reward trust, and strengthen engagement at every touchpoint, turning everyday interactions into enduring connections.

• : Empowers businesses with AI-driven insights to capture and unify customer data in a dynamic, cloud-based loyalty profile. These profiles provide deep insights into individual motivations, enabling smarter segmentation and highly targeted marketing campaigns. From managing global programs on a unified platform to forming strategic alliances and scaling initiatives for impact, 麻豆原创 helps transform loyalty into a measurable, powerful engine for sustainable engagement and success. 麻豆原创 Customer Loyalty Management has integrations for 麻豆原创 Service Cloud and 麻豆原创 S/HANA Cloud Private Edition to make the transformation faster.

The future of engagement is here, get ready with 麻豆原创

How we engage is changing faster than ever. 麻豆原创鈥檚 Q4 2025 innovations in customer experience anticipate this shift on every level. 麻豆原创 CX is enabling organizations to move beyond reactive strategies and into a world of proactive, personalized experiences.

Businesses that embrace and integrate these new models throughout their enterprise, pairing agentic AI with human intelligence and creativity, will set new standards for customer loyalty and growth.

Learn more about 麻豆原创 CX in Q4 2025

Read the 麻豆原创 Help documentation to get started with these new capabilities.

• 鈥�&苍产蝉辫;
•   
•   

Balaji Balasubramanian is president and chief product officer for 麻豆原创 Customer Experience and Consumer Industries.

Seismic shifts are not new for retailers鈥攂ack in 1999, e-commerce was still an afterthought. By 2000, everything changed as retailers went all-in on digital.

In听2025,听we are听living in yet听another pivotal year.听This holiday season might feel familiar as you scroll through deals, compare brands, and race to beat shipping deadlines. But beneath the surface, something far more transformative is happening.听The year 2025 will听likely be听the last consumers shop as they do now.听听

Agentic AI is reshaping commerce by making shopping faster, smarter, and effortless. Discovery is moving from people browsing their favorite brands to intelligent orchestration. Instead of opening 10 tabs to hunt for the right deal, shoppers will simply ask: 鈥淔ind me the highest rated black, puffy winter coat, size 10, under $200 that ships in two days.鈥�

The agent will handle the rest鈥攕canning thousands of options, validating reviews, confirming delivery timelines, even factoring in loyalty perks. That future isn鈥檛 tomorrow; it鈥檚 already here, and by next holiday season, most shopping journeys will begin, evolve, or end with AI agents.

While this type of shopping creates convenience for shoppers, it creates a challenge for retailers that have focused on brand campaigns and poured millions of dollars into advertising to be the 鈥渂rand of choice鈥� in the discovery process. Decades of investment into SEO, paid traffic, and brand recognition are losing their edge. While not abandoning these strategies entirely, they must evolve for the AI-first world.

However, there is something that hasn鈥檛 changed over the course of decades: the need to create loyal customers who make repeat purchases and give the greatest share of their wallets. This, too, is more challenging than ever. In fact, 72% of consumers report that this holiday season they will only that consistently meet their needs in the moment.

Creating customer loyalty in the age of agentic commerce means conquering two critical fronts:

• Optimizing for discoverability: Agents will favor retailers that make buying seamless.
• Creating customer loyalty post-purchase: With discovery being augmented by AI agents, humans will now give their ongoing loyalty based on post-purchase experiences. On-time delivery, easy returns, and rewards that feel personal are the new battleground for brand equity.听 And with agents learning from human behavior, exceeding shopper expectations post-purchase can ultimately impact a brand鈥檚 likelihood of being recommended in the discovery phase.

The question remains: how do we move from esoteric AI conversations to practical strategies?

Discovery and loyalty: How to win in the age of agentic AI

• Make your catalog agent-ready: Treat AI as a new kind of shopper. Ensure product feeds are rich, structured, and machine-readable, complete with attributes, use-case-driven descriptions, real-time pricing, and accurate inventory. Clean, structured product data is now the foundation of intelligent discovery.
• Create solutions, not just SKUs: AI-driven traffic behaves differently. Design bundles, add-ons, and value stacks that solve specific problems and allow agents to match shoppers with outcomes, not just product lists.
• Build trustworthy, accessible information: Operationalize trust by surfacing verified reviews, transparent pricing, sustainability details, and clear return policies. Make this data accessible through well-structured APIs, not scraping, so agents and humans see the same reliable truth.
• Let prediction power personalization: Use unified data and AI to predict what customers want before they act, enabling real-time next-best-actions across email, SMS, push, in-app, and other emerging channels. This predictive intelligence turns fragmented campaigns into that deliver higher engagement and revenue.
• Make loyalty the thread that ties every experience together: Loyalty is no longer a program. It鈥檚 a relationship. Use every interaction to tailor meaningful, emotional moments that adapt, remember, and feel consistent across channels in order to help convert agent-driven traffic. Then, use personalized exclusives and perks to foster high-value relationships with those new customers.
• Deliver on your promises, every time: Eighty-eight percent of customers leave a brand after one bad experience. That鈥檚 why operational reliability is the new loyalty. Bring order, inventory, payments, and fulfillment into alignment, so customers receive what they were promised, when they were promised. Loyalty now begins at checkout.
• Prepare for the new return economy: Agent-driven buying makes it easy for consumers to purchase first and decide later. Set clear limits to protect margins and reduce friction in the returns journey because a seamless return can build more loyalty than the purchase itself.

麻豆原创 is already helping brands prepare for this future with AI-enabled technologies across , , , and .

A brand already building for the future

Global sports brand . Historically reliant on seasonal campaigns, Mizuno wanted a more sustainable way to engage its diverse customer base across 10 product categories and multiple channels. Mizuno unified its customer data and used AI to create personalized journeys, turning one-off interactions into long-term relationships.

The results speak for themselves:

• 52% year-over-year (YoY) increase in active customers
• 62% increase in revenue from premium customers
• 35% increase in customer win-backs
• 33% increase in the number of orders

麻豆原创: A partner built for scale, stability, and growth

As customer behavior evolves and AI reshapes what鈥檚 possible, one thing remains constant: 麻豆原创鈥檚 commitment to helping brands win their biggest commercial moments. This year鈥檚 holiday results make that clearer than ever. We鈥檙e not just helping brands plan for peak season鈥攚e鈥檙e helping them execute it with precision, intelligence, and confidence.

Nearly 20% YoY growth in total messages sent underscores the trust brands place in 麻豆原创 Emarsys to deliver at scale. Mobile and emerging channels surged鈥攊n-app (+61%), SMS (+32%), push (+27%), and inbox (+91%) all saw significant YoY gains鈥攁s brands met customers exactly where they were browsing and buying. Omnichannel maturity accelerated with brands using a richer mix of channels to create connected, high-value experiences across every stage of the shopping journey. And with 100% uptime and flawless reliability, teams executed independently and confidently, even during their highest-volume moments.

Paired with exceptional commerce performance, the story becomes even more compelling: brands used more intelligent engagement to guide shoppers toward higher-value purchases (+18% YoY average order value) and ultimately drove substantial YoY revenue growth (+40% gross merchandise value)鈥攁ll powered by a that delivered uninterrupted performance with 100% uptime through the holiday shopping rush, ensuring we鈥檙e here for our customers when it matters most.

This is what partnership looks like: scale, intelligence, reliability, and results so brands can focus on creating exceptional customer experiences, not managing technology.

Looking ahead

The year 2025 will be remembered as the last holiday season where brand mattered more than the overall experience.

This year, and 48% of shoppers would support brands bringing more AI into their buying experience. This sets the stage for growth in 2026 as AI agents deliver relevance, trust, and immediacy, making shopping simpler, smarter, and more satisfying for people everywhere.

The brands that win won鈥檛 be the ones shouting the loudest. They鈥檒l be the ones using 麻豆原创 to be most discoverable, dependable, and unforgettable.

By anticipating needs and creating better, personalized journeys, AI will enhance every stage of commerce. And 麻豆原创 is here to make that future happen.

Balaji Balasubramanian is president and chief product officer for 麻豆原创 Customer Experience.

麻豆原创鈥檚 latest customer experience solutions are built to deliver on these expectations, empowering organizations to earn loyalty, drive growth, and create seamless, connected experiences.

In today鈥檚 market, loyalty and retention are the twin engines of repeatable business, the lifeblood of every organization. Earning and keeping customer trust has always been hard-won, but the bar is higher than ever. Recent findings from the show a five-point drop in 鈥渢rue loyalty,鈥� customers who return without incentives. Only 35 percent of B2B customers reach strategic loyalty, defined as repeat purchases and long-term engagement. And nearly one-third of customers are lost to fragmented experiences. Brands now face a new reality: building lasting loyalty requires understanding customers and delivering consistent, connected experiences across every touchpoint.

Meeting the loyalty challenge: 麻豆原创 Engagement Cloud and 麻豆原创 Customer Loyalty Management

To help customers meet this challenge, 麻豆原创 has created two powerful solutions: and .

Yesterday at 麻豆原创 Connect 2025, 麻豆原创 Executive Board Member Muhammad Alam shared the vision for 麻豆原创 Engagement Cloud. Powered by 麻豆原创 Business Data Cloud, it transforms fragmented interactions into AI-driven journeys across marketing, commerce, sales, and service鈥攕trengthening loyalty, deepening relationships, and driving business growth. By connecting every customer touchpoint to real operational data鈥攆rom logistics and finance to supply chain鈥攂rands can deliver accurate delivery estimates, relevant offers, and timely service that reflects actual inventory and fulfillment capacity.

With Joule and embedded AI, 麻豆原创 Engagement Cloud accelerates campaign execution, automates decisions, and scales personalization鈥攅nsuring every interaction is consistent, connected, and meaningful. This comes at a critical time, as according to the 麻豆原创 Emarsys Customer Loyalty Index, only 35 percent of B2B customers achieve strategic loyalty.听Replacing disconnected systems and outdated engagement models, 麻豆原创 Engagement Cloud makes engagement a strategic advantage, uniting data and AI to deliver smarter experiences across the 麻豆原创 ecosystem. Beta begins November 2025, with general availability in Q1 2026.

麻豆原创 Customer Loyalty Management empowers teams to deliver personalized experiences at scale by giving every customer a single loyalty profile, no matter the brand, region, or partner. With loyalty data unified and natively integrated into 麻豆原创 Private Cloud ERP and 麻豆原创 Business Suite, teams can instantly monitor promotions, track reward usage, and understand financial impact in real time. This actionable insight feeds directly into planning, forecasting, and supply chain decisions, enabling businesses to adapt quickly and serve customers better.

Loyalty isn鈥檛 a separate marketing project, it鈥檚 woven into daily business operations. By centralizing loyalty data, 麻豆原创 Customer Loyalty Management helps organizations understand each customer deeply and deliver consistent, connected experiences across every touchpoint.

The solution will be available Q4 2025.

AI and intelligence: the next imperative

At 麻豆原创 Connect, we introduced how Joule, 麻豆原创鈥檚 AI copilot, is transforming customer experience by embedding intelligence directly into 麻豆原创 Business Suite. Joule is not another layer, it鈥檚 built into the foundation, enabling smarter decisions and faster execution across every customer moment.

AI assistants in Joule bring role-based intelligence to customer-facing teams across service, sales, marketing, and commerce. Each assistant is tailored to the user鈥檚 role and business context, coordinating a network of AI assistants within Joule to automate tasks like resolving cases, chasing invoices, optimizing catalogs, and surfacing insights. This orchestration enables teams to focus on driving outcomes rather than managing operations.

For instance, Digital Service Agent delivers fast, multilingual support by reasoning over customer context and company knowledge. It provides accurate answers, escalates when needed, and continuously improves, reducing manual workload and enhancing customer satisfaction. This is available now.

Deep research in Joule

With deep research in Joule, account planning moves beyond quick answers, delivering deep, strategic research and analysis in a single, connected experience. By tapping into 麻豆原创 data, external intelligence, and trusted resources, users get richer insights for any business need.

Sales leaders and chief revenue officers can use the new account planning that leverages deep research in Joule to compress weeks of manual work into days. It synthesizes customer history, identifies key drivers, and drafts account plans, giving sales teams a complete, real-time view of every relationship.

Deep research in Joule will be available in beta December 2025.

Intelligent applications for customer experience

麻豆原创 Business AI also powers that help businesses turn data into action:

• Revenue Intelligence brings together data from CRM, commerce, and ERP to surface pipeline risks, customer health, and sales performance. Sales leaders and chief revenue officers gain a unified, real-time view to strengthen pipelines, improve win rates, and accelerate profitable growth.
• Consumer Products Intelligence enables manufacturers and consumer packaged goods companies to optimize trade promotions and customer-facing offers. Integrated with and , it uses real-time data from sales, supply chain, and production to analyze margins, monitor performance, and support financial planning, ensuring CX strategies are aligned with operational realities.

These innovations are tightly integrated with 麻豆原创 Business Suite, ensuring every CX insight is grounded in real-time, harmonized data. They are currently in restricted private preview and expected to be generally available in H1 2026.

Adoption that drives value

Building on the Customer Loyalty Index findings about the importance of connected experiences, seamless, guided adoption is essential to delivering value. That is why is now embedded across all 麻豆原创 Customer Experience solutions.

WalkMe is a digital adoption platform that provides real-time, role-based guidance 鈥� right inside 麻豆原创 interfaces. No IT tickets required. Teams get help in the flow of work, with step-by-step instructions that minimize onboarding time and reduce errors. Leaders gain instant visibility into where users struggle, so they can address friction and accelerate adoption.

The path forward

Loyalty is evolving, and so are we. Our priority is to help brands earn trust and adapt quickly.

The 麻豆原创 Customer Experience innovations introduced at 麻豆原创 Connect are designed for this challenge. They connect engagement with execution through solutions like 麻豆原创 Engagement Cloud, Revenue Intelligence, and 麻豆原创 Customer Loyalty Management; turn intelligence into action with embedded AI and automation; and give teams unified, real-time data to deliver measurable results and stay ahead in a rapidly changing market.

See how your business measures up in the and the . .

Balaji Balasubramanian is president and chief product officer for 麻豆原创 Customer Experience.

These moments are the building blocks of delivering seamless and memorable experiences — and lasting loyalty.

At 麻豆原创, we believe every touchpoint is more than a chance to meet a need. It is an opportunity to deepen trust, demonstrate value, and strengthen the relationship between customer and brand. That belief is at the heart of the 麻豆原创 Customer Experience (麻豆原创 CX) portfolio — now infused with the power of AI.

Our Q3 2025 release reflects this vision. Intelligence is embedded across the entire customer journey. Generative AI helps service teams classify cases the moment they arrive. Autonomous agents in commerce guide customers to the right products with real-time stock visibility. For marketers, AI personalizes campaigns and generates segment descriptions and translations, ensuring relevance at scale. For sales teams, AI keeps data clean and actionable, eliminating duplicates and surfacing the right opportunities at the right time.

 AI isn’t just about efficiency alone; it is about elevating every interaction into a moment where trust can be deepened and loyalty earned.

Here are the highlights from 麻豆原创 CX in Q3 2025.

AI that drives results

From decision-making to customer engagement, AI-powered intelligence and agents streamline processes and remove friction. Teams gain the ability to respond faster, deliver smarter interactions, and grow with confidence while delivering customer experiences that feel effortless, reliable, and personalized.

麻豆原创 Service Cloud

• Business information extraction in cases: Save time by automatically extracting registered product information from the case description, using pre-delivered elements for business information extraction.

麻豆原创 Sales Cloud 

• Contact and individual customer duplicate checks: Maintain clean, accurate records by managing redundant and data. This generative AI capability checks for duplicates and returns a confidence score, leaving the decision-making in human hands.

麻豆原创 Emarsys 

• AI-assisted product finder: Enable marketers to use natural language prompts and keywords to quickly search and locate products for targeted campaigns. Automatic product catalog sync ensures you are always working with the most up-to-date data.
• AI-assisted segment description generator: Generate human-readable segment summaries to improve execution. This ensures that existing segments are easily discoverable with descriptions that are intuitive and straightforward.
• AI-assisted campaign translator (pilot): Translate email campaign copy flexibly and seamlessly within the editing workflow. Localize product descriptions across languages to quickly build, optimize, and launch multi-language campaigns.

麻豆原创 Commerce Cloud 

• Shopping Agent: Using product stock awareness to return real-time inventory data, the configurable Shopping Agent can display or hide out-of-stock products in its recommendations. This makes for smarter recommendations, reducing friction and abandoned carts. For B2B transactions, merchants can also choose whether the agent answers questions about bulk product availability.

麻豆原创 Revenue Growth Management

• AI-assisted promotion creation: Create new promotions quickly by getting recommendations for promotion names, when to run a promotion, what products to include, which spend type to use, and recommendations for discount type.

Scale smarter with greater flexibility

Scaling efficiently while providing flexibility for customers means optimizing operations, offering expanded channel options, and extending visibility to customers and partners.

麻豆原创 Emarsys 

• Microsoft Ads integration: Scale personalized ad experiences across the Microsoft Search Network, including Bing, Yahoo, AOL, and other Microsoft properties.
• Conversational messaging for LINE (): After expanding our offering to in the Q2 release, we now support the popular conversational channel LINE, giving marketers a direct way to connect with customers in the channels they use every day and making it easier to turn engagement into conversion.

麻豆原创 Commerce Cloud 

• Central order service: This feature for seamlessly integrates online and offline transactions, paving the way for flexible customer experience scenarios like “buy online, return in store” (BORIS) and “buy in store, return online” (BISRO).
• Availability push: now allows customers to proactively send real-time product availability information to external systems like webshops and marketplaces, ensuring they have the most current stock data without needing to request it.

麻豆原创 Sales and Service Cloud 

• 麻豆原创 Preferred Success: We are empowering our customers to make the most of their 麻豆原创 investments with the . This interactive workshop helps participants pinpoint which processes to optimize, outsource, or remove for the greatest impact. Learn how to identify critical processes, define roles and responsibilities, and establish a sustainable approach to process governance.
• Integration review V2: A comprehensive solution launch checklist for 麻豆原创 Sales Cloud and 麻豆原创 Service Cloud Version 2 integrations ensures successful rollouts and compliance with 麻豆原创 best practices. The checklist systematically evaluates authentication mechanisms, interface configurations, middleware settings, and 麻豆原创 Integration Suite implementation. 

麻豆原创 Enterprise Service Management

Updates to include:

• Case summary enhancements: Sentiment trend and sentiment graph can now be enabled in the interaction summary for additional information on a customer. Internal and external case notes can be configured and used to generate the resolution summary overview.
• Custom services: Gain more flexibility and extend capabilities without modifying the core application. Integrate external functionality into 麻豆原创 Service Cloud V2 with custom services.
• Template visibility and restrictions: Every document is also an opportunity to establish trust. Now you can strengthen document security by limiting template access to those who need it.

麻豆原创 Revenue Growth Management 

New to  are:

• Custom KPIs: Assess the performance of your account and promotion planswith custom KPIs, tracking metrics that suit your planning and reporting processes. Save time by creating KPI profiles to define a set of standard pre-defined KPIs.

• Promotion calendar export to PDF: Reduce uncertainty, lower costs, and build relationships with better alignment on annual promotions and EDLP agreements with customers. Key account managers can now share a promotion calendar and associated promotion details in a PDF file, making collaboration easier and decisions faster.

Trust advantage in AI-powered customer experience

AI is now woven into the fabric of the 麻豆原创 CX road map, guiding how data, processes, and experiences come together. This deep integration sets the stage for a new era of customer engagement, one where intelligence anticipates needs, adapts in real time, and continuously strengthens loyalty at every touchpoint.

Learn more about what is new in 麻豆原创 CX Q3 2025

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Balaji Balasubramanian is president and chief product officer for 麻豆原创 Customer Experience.

Every moment in the customer journey is a chance to deliver value, earn trust, and build relationships. But delivering consistently great experiences means adapting to evolving trends and expectations with a connected approach to people, data, and systems. 

The Q2 2025 release of the (麻豆原创 CX) portfolio does just that. Whether engaging customers, streamlining operations, or empowering employees, this release delivers smarter, faster, more personalized experiences at scale. Powered by AI with harmonized data, it brings improvements across the customer experience life cycle, from first touch to long-term growth, with seamless, value-generating experiences across service, sales, marketing, commerce, and consumer industries.听听

Here are the highlights from 麻豆原创 CX in Q2 2025.  

Making every interaction count 

Everyday moments turn into meaningful engagements when experiences are connected, relevant, and effortless. This release helps users go beyond meeting customer needs to building trust and loyalty at every touchpoint.听

麻豆原创 Service Cloud  

• Business Information Extraction: and convert it into structured, usable documents 鈥� like auto-filling case descriptions from customer emails 鈥� saving time and manual effort.

麻豆原创 Commerce Cloud 

• B2B Self-Service Portal: Raise customer satisfaction and reduce service volume with this scalable, easily implemented . B2B customers can view order status, invoices, and delivery updates鈥攔egardless of how the order was placed. 
• AI Shopping Agent: to drive conversions and growth. With prompting questions and natural, conversational language, the agent guides product discovery and enables in-chat actions like add to cart as well as view order and shipping details.

麻豆原创 Emarsys 

• Enhancements 
  • Segmentation: Combine wallet and customer data to target the right people; for example, reengaging those who have not interacted recently with Mobile Wallet campaigns.
  • Expanded Wallet Delivery Channels: Reach customers anywhere with the new Mobile Inbox and Mobile Push channels.
  • Pass Notifications: Automatically deliver timely lock-screen updates for on-the-spot engagement and conversion with mobile wallet users or targeted customer segments. 
• WhatsApp Template Messaging: like promotions and order updates using the rich content, personalization, and multi-language support in 麻豆原创 Emarsys.
• Conversational Messaging for WhatsApp (): Have based on contacts鈥� responses.

Scale smarter, operate better 

Sustainable growth requires operational efficiency and built-in customer experience. With unified data connected to core business operations and AI-driven insights, these updates improve internal operations, enhance scalability, and set the foundation for differentiated customer experiences.听

麻豆原创 Commerce Cloud 

• B2B Self-Service Portal: Give customers transparency without committing to full commerce and scale when ready, without data migration or replatforming.听Launch this for B2B customers in just weeks with partner packages that simplify setup and accelerate time to value. Built as an ERP add-on, the portal connects natively with back-end systems to surface real-time order and invoice data, reducing support workload and improving the customer experience with accurate, always-on self-service. Out-of-the-box compatibility with 麻豆原创 S/4HANA and 麻豆原创 Cloud ERP means faster setup, less IT effort, and long-term flexibility.听
• Open Payment Framework: Support for brings unified checkout, reliability, and built-in security and validation to the payment experience, accelerating time to market and increasing conversions.听

麻豆原创 Sales and Service Cloud听

• : Accelerate time to value and maximize your investment in 麻豆原创 with services navigator for 麻豆原创 Sales Cloud and 麻豆原创 Service Cloud Version 2 implementations. Part of 麻豆原创 Preferred Success for 麻豆原创 Customer Experience solutions, the navigator helps users discover relevant services from their 麻豆原创 Preferred Success subscription for each stage of a project, align support offerings with project goals and timelines, and improve business outcomes with accelerated adoption and reduced risk.
• : Reduce the costs and complexity of internal issue resolution with unified service delivery. By centralizing and structuring inquiry management and response, out-of-the-box integrations of 麻豆原创 Enterprise Service Management with 麻豆原创 Business Suite applications break down silos to improve service delivery across finance, HR, marketing, facilities, sales, support, and more.听

麻豆原创 Revenue Growth Management听

New to in Q2 2025 includes:听听

• Fund management: Gain control over trade spend鈥攃reate funds, manage and adjust fund budgets, and track spending for promotions.
• Analytics dashboards: Get quick access to planning data and insights into P&L for individual promotions with embedded 麻豆原创 Analytics Cloud, 麻豆原创 Revenue Growth Management analytics dashboards.听

AI that accelerates impact

Across the experience life cycle, AI-powered embedded intelligence and autonomous AI agents help unlock faster decisions and better outcomes. This release helps teams move faster, engage smarter, and scale with confidence.

麻豆原创 Sales Cloud 

• Sales Order Summary: Enable sales managers to act quickly with like price changes, product substitutions, on-time delivery probability, and more 鈥� boosting accuracy and profitability.
• Account Duplicate Check: Protect data quality and reduce the manual effort of dealing with redundant data. Account Duplicate Check uses AI to so users can maintain clean, accurate records and drive smarter engagement.听

麻豆原创 Service Cloud 

• Registered Product Summary: Empower agents with a of a product鈥檚 service history, turning standard service calls into a strategic conversation. 
• Business Information Extraction: from unstructured documents using AI, helping unlock insights and action.听

麻豆原创 Emarsys 

• Natural Language Search for Product Curation: Enable marketers to using natural language search, helping them move faster and build the right use cases. 

Innovation that connects it all

From loyalty to growth to operational agility, these innovations help deliver more intelligent, connected experiences at every touchpoint 鈥� with the adaptability and scalability to grow lifelong customer value. 

Balaji Balasubramanian is president and chief product officer for 麻豆原创 Customer Experience.

In the AI era, relying on standalone line-of-business applications limits growth. To unlock their full potential, businesses need a connected business suite, a unified data strategy, and a powerful data foundation 鈥� forming an integrated system that breaks down silos, empowers teams, and enables personalized engagement.

Foundation for intelligent growth

With more than 50 years of expertise in managing critical business data, 麻豆原创 helps companies unlock AI that is relevant, reliable, and responsible. This year at , we announced innovations for customer-centric, AI-powered growth 鈥� whether paired with 麻豆原创 or non-麻豆原创 solutions. These innovations build on the three critical growth drivers:

• delivers real-time insights and connections across systems and data. With built-in AI, it transforms complexity into clarity and enables fast, agile action.
• centralizes trusted internal and external data, breaking down silos to deliver real-time visibility and insights for personalized experiences.
• , is central to this growth strategy and brings AI into every interaction 鈥� from marketing to service 鈥� tapping into business-critical data to deliver seamless, context-rich experiences, while maximizing the value of existing 麻豆原创 investments.

This integrated approach enables smarter decisions, more responsive service, and long-term loyalty.

Our latest innovations expand upon this growth engine, helping companies stand out.

AI-driven automation for accelerated impact

Our expanding portfolio bridges the gap between intelligence and automation. These ready-to-use AI agents automate routine tasks deliver value quickly with minimal configuration. New agents include:

• Quote Creation Agent: Drafts structured, CRM-ready quotes, reducing response time from hours to minutes. Learn more about .
• Catalog Optimization Agent: Continuously improve SEO and product descriptions to improve discoverability and conversion. Learn more about .

Working seamlessly within existing 麻豆原创 CX environments, Joule Agents preserve human judgment where it matters most while automating the rest, freeing teams to focus on growth.

Connections that drive efficiency and growth

unifies service delivery across sales, marketing, HR, finance, procurement, and more, powered by AI and embedded across 麻豆原创 Business Suite. With its unique focus on user experience, it boosts productivity and operational excellence.

For 麻豆原创 CX users, it centralizes processes for sales inquiries and support, accelerating close rates and shortening deal cycles. This unified approach turns fragmented service into seamless, AI-powered orchestration.

Key capabilities across the 麻豆原创 portfolio include:

• : Self-service and AI routing of complex issues frees HR teams for strategic priorities
• Finance: Automates accounts receivable/payable inquiries, disputes, and discrepancies to improve accuracy, shorten AR turnover, and accelerate cash flow
• : Centralized, AI-driven sales inquiries and support, improves response times and boosts close rates

Automation and unified systems help streamline operations and strengthen customer relationships, fueling satisfaction and growth.

Smarter revenue management for maximized growth

Launching in the third quarter 2025, helps consumer packaged goods companies optimize promotions, budgets, and ROI with AI insights and real-time financial data. integration helps prevent overspend and supports 麻豆原创 Sales and Operations Planning with .

Key enhancements include:

• Visibility into revenue, margin, ROI, volume, and profit and loss data for account performance insights and better trade promotion decisions
• Promotion spend insights via integrated 麻豆原创 Cloud ERP
• More accurate forecasting with 麻豆原创 Integrated Business Planning and streamlined budget planning with
• Improved trade promotion budget management at customer and product levels, aligned to financial plans

By turning promotion data into demand signals, companies can optimize promotion strategies, reduce overspend, and deliver personalized, data-driven interactions at scale.

Scalable success: from self-service insights to full B2B commerce

, a powerful 麻豆原创 Cloud ERP add-on, gives B2B customers secure, 24/7 access to real-time order data from all sales channels. Designed for digital-first buyers, it reduces support workload and creates a solid foundation to scale and expand into full B2B e-commerce.

Key capabilities include:

• Native 麻豆原创 Cloud ERP integration for real-time order and invoice data across channels with no middleware or data duplication
• Omnichannel visibility — EDI, email, phone, fax, direct sales, e-commerce — for one-stop customer order data access
• Rapid time to value with preconfigured data models, UI templates, and our vetted partner ecosystem
• Faster issue resolution with user emulation, allowing support teams to see what the buyer sees
• Future-ready scalability that easily extends to full B2B e-commerce without re-platforming

With low TCO and deployable in just weeks, the portal supports digital-first convenience and long-term growth.

Easy, adaptable, future-ready payments

While 麻豆原创 B2B Self-Service Portal empowers B2B customers with real-time access to orders and transactions, 麻豆原创 Commerce Cloud, open payment framework modernizes payments. Its no-code, low-code architecture enables flexible support for methods like buy now, pay later and a wide range of third-party payment service providers, including Stripe, Adyen, Worldpay, and Airwallex. Announced in the first quarter, the solution allows rapid deployment and customized payment solutions.

Benefits include:

• Rapid customization of payment experiences for seamless experiences
• Flexibility to meet evolving buyer needs
• Seamless scalability while ensuring compliance and security
• Reduced complexity and time to value

Together, these capabilities form the foundation for long-term growth.

Real-time data intelligence for seamless experiences

As businesses gain control over payment experiences, they also need real-time visibility into the transactions driving their operations. Customers expect consistent, personalized experiences across channels, from in-store to mobile to online, at every touchpoint.

, a modular, cloud-native solution bundle, unifies point-of-sale and digital order data, processes high-volume transactions in real time, and ensures accurate inventory availability across locations. It supports flexible fulfillment and returns, such as buy online, pick up in-store (BOPIS), and return anywhere, and enables more intelligent inventory planning, sourcing, and channel-aware promotional planning.

These capabilities reduce operational friction, increase loyalty, and help businesses scale profitably and sustainably.

Turning customer experience into competitive advantage

These innovations enable a growth strategy that transforms customer experience into a powerful competitive advantage. By connecting data, processes, and interactions with AI-driven insights, businesses can deliver proactive, tailored experiences that foster loyalty and fuel growth.

麻豆原创 is committed to helping customers harness the power of customer experience. These innovations reflect our focus on delivering real-world value and unlocking new growth opportunities.

Learn more about our and how they can help your business grow.

Balaji Balasubramanian is president and chief product officer for 麻豆原创 Customer Experience.

Behind the scenes, retailers struggle to deliver these experiences due to fragmented, outdated, and incomplete data that makes real-time decision-making nearly impossible and hampers engagement, operational efficiency, and, ultimately, profitability.

The hidden costs of disconnected data

When retailers鈥� data exists in silos, the problem is compounded from all angles. With sales, inventory, marketing, and customer engagement data living in separate systems, retailers lack the clear view of customer behavior and business insights they need to respond with critical actions in real time. Lack of context within the data means businesses struggle to extract meaningful insights.

Consider the impact:

• Limited inventory visibility leads to stockouts and overstocks, frustrating customers and eroding profits.
• Lack of real-time insights hinders personalized customer engagement, diminishing loyalty.
• Disconnected operations make omnichannel fulfillment鈥攕uch as buy online, pick up in-store (BOPIS) or hassle-free returns鈥攄ifficult to execute smoothly.

At a moment when retailers must optimize every facet of their business to remain competitive, a unified data strategy isn鈥檛 optional鈥攊t’s essential.

A data-driven future: Turning insights into action

To break these silos, retailers need a unified data foundation鈥攐ne that consolidates insights across all customer touchpoints, enabling real-time intelligence and business agility. 麻豆原创 Business Data Cloud (麻豆原创 BDC), as recently announced, is an integrated solution that can bring data together from all sources, owned and external, to help create a single, trusted source of truth.

With 麻豆原创 Business Data Cloud, retailers can have the total picture of data from sales, inventory, marketing, loyalty, service, and near-real-time statuses of third-party logistics.

With this holistic view, retailers can:

• Enable seamless cross-channel fulfillment, such as buy online, pick up in-store or return anywhere.
• Optimize operational efficiency for everything from intelligent sourcing and promotional planning to inventory visibility and availability across sales channels.
• Personalize customer engagement by leveraging data-driven insights to boost loyalty and increase revenue.

By shifting to a data-first approach, retailers can move beyond managing transactions to driving intelligent, customer-centric experiences for long-term loyalty and growth.

Why physical stores still matter鈥攎ore than ever

Despite the rise of e-commerce, more than 80% of retail interactions still take place in physical stores. Brick-and-mortar locations remain central to the retail journey, yet, as retailers鈥� largest cost center, they also encompass the biggest operational challenges鈥攆rom inventory carrying costs to labor and store operations.

Although today鈥檚 consumers are fluid in how they shop鈥攔esearching products across multiple platforms or buying online and picking up in-store, for example鈥攖hey still expect accurate, real-time visibility into inventory wherever they engage. In this landscape, data is the lifeblood that allows retailers to orchestrate orders, manage workflows, and ensure that customers can trust the information they see. Yet, according to , 51% of U.S. brands say their organization suffers from “dark data,” which is data that is collected but not effectively used.

To remain competitive, retailers must harness real-time transactional insights to optimize store efficiency, maximize revenue, and provide seamless customer interactions.

Bringing it all together: Intelligent order management

Retailers don鈥檛 just need data鈥攖hey also need actionable, real-time intelligence that helps them drive smarter decision-making. That鈥檚 why 麻豆原创 is integrating advanced order management capabilities as part of our broader data-driven customer experience strategy. 麻豆原创 has a long history of helping thousands of retail and B2C customers manage vast amounts of data. Today we鈥檙e tailoring this expertise, trusted by market leaders worldwide, to help meet the scale, flexibility, and time-to-value required by fast-growing organizations.

As part of the bundle, we are launching the 麻豆原创 Omnichannel Sales Transfer and Audit solution today at in Las Vegas, Nevada. This modular, cloud-native solution can empower retailers with real-time visibility into transactions and inventory, helping to reduce friction and improve customer satisfaction. 麻豆原创 Omnichannel Sales Transfer and Audit can unify POS data from multiple systems, process high-volume transactions in real time, and help ensure inventory accuracy across all channels to improve stock availability, financial reporting, and customer engagement鈥攚ithout the burden of complex, custom-built integrations.

Apart from omnichannel sales and audit capabilities, the 麻豆原创 Order Management Services bundle also includes additional modular, cloud-native capabilities including and the . The 麻豆原创 Order Management Services bundle is natively connected with 麻豆原创 S/4HANA, which can enable retail and consumer products organizations and other consumer brands to unlock real-time inventory visibility, streamline fulfillment, and reduce operational costs without complex and costly custom integrations. And, integrated with 麻豆原创 S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition, retail, fashion, and vertical business, announced at NRF earlier this year, the cloud-native capabilities of the 麻豆原创 Order Management Services bundle can be even more scalable, secure, compliant, and affordable, enabling retailers to realize value more quickly than ever before.

Other benefits of 麻豆原创 Omnichannel Sales Transfer and Audit include:

• Seamless POS integration can connect multiple POS systems with different data structures, working to eliminate silos and ensure data accuracy.
• Real-time inventory updates help keep omnichannel inventory accurate so customers can trust what they see online matches what’s available in-store.
• Smarter data processing and configurable data transfer and aggregation help update inventory, financials, and even loyalty programs effortlessly.
• Optimized sales data validation process can automate checks that are executed through configurable workflows.

By embracing a unified data strategy, retailers can eliminate complexity, reduce costs, and unlock new opportunities for growth鈥攁ll while delivering the frictionless experiences today鈥檚 consumers expect.

Hornbach: The future of omnichannel retail in action

For Hornbach, one of the largest DIY stores in Germany, . It needs to be able to add new channels quickly鈥攁nd to maintain a seamless customer experience over all channels. Hornbach adopted 麻豆原创 Order Management Services as a foundation for this vision, enabling the flexibility to address new markets quickly, connect new systems, process orders rapidly and efficiently, and adopt new innovations. With the addition of 麻豆原创 Omnichannel Sales and Transfer Audit, the Hornbach team expects to get more visibility in day-to-day operations, like checking fraud detection and the completeness of transactions.

鈥淭he most exciting thing will be the combination of all these new technologies we鈥檙e seeing: artificial intelligence, event-driven architecture, as well as native cloud solutions,鈥� said Carsten Mueller, head of Enterprise Architecture and Security, Hornbach. 鈥淭he combination will give Hornbach great power in the next year.鈥�

The future of retail is data-driven

The retail industry is evolving at an unprecedented pace, with AI redefining how businesses operate and interact with customers. According to the same 麻豆原创 Emarsys report, 89% of U.S. consumer product marketers believe AI will be essential for engaging new customers. However, the effectiveness of AI hinges on the reliability and accuracy of the data it processes.

Retailers that embrace AI-powered data intelligence will lead the next era of omnichannel excellence. The future isn鈥檛 just about connecting data鈥攊t’s about activating it in real time to drive seamless customer interactions.

To stay ahead, retailers must:

• Invest in AI-driven analytics to predict demand, optimize pricing, and personalize engagement at scale.
• Implement intelligent order and transaction management to automate fulfillment, reduce friction, and improve supply chain agility.
• Leverage AI-powered customer insights to create hyper-personalized experiences that drive loyalty and lifetime value.
• Enable real-time inventory intelligence to ensure products are available where and when customers need them.

As omnichannel complexity grows, brands that fail to unify their data risk falling behind. 麻豆原创 Business Data Cloud and intelligent order management solutions can provide the foundation for a future-proof transformation. As AI continues to evolve, retailers must shift from reactive decision-making to proactive, predictive commerce, where every transaction is optimized for efficiency and profitability.

The future of retail is here. Those who harness AI to unify, analyze, and act on their data will define the next generation of customer experience and retail success. I鈥檓 excited to partner with companies navigating this transformation and empower them to seize new opportunities for success.

Want to learn more? Stay tuned to see how leading retailers are leveraging 麻豆原创鈥檚 data-driven approach to optimize their operations and stay ahead of the competition and learn more about .

Balaji Balasubramanian is president and chief product officer for 麻豆原创 Customer Experience and Consumer Industries.

We are leaving the biggest retail event of the year with so much excitement for what鈥檚 to come for the 麻豆原创 Customer Experience portfolio this year. Here鈥檚 a look into 麻豆原创 CX innovations for 2025.

Data-Driven Loyalty Management Solution

We announced a new loyalty management solution that helps brands earn the loyalty of their customers using experiential journeys and personalized, real-time offers.

Creating loyalty is key to profitable growth; however, lasting loyalty has been illusive to many brands. According to the , there are diverse motivations among consumers that drive brand loyalty. Forty-percent credit their loyalty to long-standing reputations, 30 percent say brand consistency is what brings them back, and 22 percent say it鈥檚 because of a brands iconic status. Yet, despite this loyalty, only 17 percent of consumers feel 鈥渢ruly valued,鈥� leaving the majority wanting more.

Helping consumers feel truly valued is no small feat. Traditional reward redemption methods focus only on customers who actively join loyalty programs, and that is no longer enough. Brands are innovating loyalty programs to create a sense of nostalgia, community, and devotion that delivers a memorable experience through personalized offers across the entire life cycle and on every channel.

The new loyalty solution from 麻豆原创 aims to equip organizations with experiential journeys and personalized, real-time offers to help earn customer loyalty through integration with the 麻豆原创 Commerce Cloud, 麻豆原创 Service Cloud, 麻豆原创 Emarsys and 麻豆原创 S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition, retail, fashion, and vertical business solutions. Key features that enable this are:

• Loyalty profiles that connect every shopper with a cloud-based loyalty wallet, facilitating targeted and personalized offers, entitlements, and real-time basket analysis
• Multi-brand loyalty management, as well as shared loyalty programs with partners that centralize loyalty programs across regions and markets, enabling combined brand programs for gaining market share
• A single place for omnichannel promotion planning with real-time redemption to deliver any type of offer, digital payment, and gifting to all customers on any channel
• Loyalty journey planning that delivers experiential omnichannel journeys tailored to customer needs through personalized commerce, marketing, service, and retail interactions
• Quantifiable metrics that track promotion performance and loyalty-related liabilities, linking to financial systems to measure ROI, and enable settlements with the member and partner brands

We are currently recruiting customers for a lighthouse program, and interested customers can learn more by contacting Yaron Gur-Ari. The solution is expected to be available in the second half of 2025.

Artificial Intelligence Makes Shopping Frictionless

We are also launching an AI shopping assistant to make e-commerce search and discovery a lot easier for customers.

Search abandonment is a real challenge. According to a 2023 Google research report, retailers face more than a . And to add insult to injury, search challenges also serve a huge blow to customer loyalty, with 78 percent of consumers viewing brands differently and 82 percent of consumers saying that they would avoid websites where they鈥檝e experienced search difficulties.

With the AI shopping assistant, users can now deliver that white-glove experience to their customers online. For industrial buyers, it acts as a technical specialist — helping source specific replacement parts, comparing complex specifications, and suggesting compatible components. For retail customers, it serves as a personal shopper — understanding style preferences, recommending complementary accessories, and answering detailed product questions.

The assistant seamlessly integrates with 麻豆原创 Commerce Cloud through a flexible API, allowing users to easily plug it into new or existing storefront while maintaining the brand experience. With built-in security and support for multiple languages, it is designed to deliver sophisticated product discovery at scale.

The AI shopping assistant, as part of the , is available for early access now and will be generally available in March of 2025 for 麻豆原创 Commerce Cloud customers.

Effortless Payment Service Integration

We previously announced a new composable payment solution, 麻豆原创 Commerce Cloud, open payment framework, that helps retailers continue to scale and remain agile as new payment options gain popularity.

Open payment framework is a no-code, low-code framework that gives retailers a low-cost, adaptive, and agile payments system that can best fit their business and customer needs without the need to build out integrations on their own. Extensible and headless, the framework ensures that the front and back ends are decoupled and operate independently, catering to a wide range of requirements across channels and allowing customers to have the freedom to pick their preferred payment methods. It covers common payment needs and end-to-end payment processes across authorization, capture, refunds, and re-authorization as well as automatic updates with security and compliance standards. Open payment framework is natively integrated with 麻豆原创 Commerce Cloud.

Open payment framework is planned for general availability on January 22, 2025. Customers can .

Intelligent Search Service Makes Product Discovery Easier

The intelligent search service is a modern, multi-tenant SaaS solution designed to deliver seamless, AI-powered search experiences for both shoppers and business users. Key benefits that empower end-to-end commerce journeys are:

• Effortless product discovery for shoppers on the storefront with natural, intuitive search capabilities, enhanced by AI-driven verbatims, flexible indexing, and intelligent scoring. Features like smart word suggestions and personalized recommendations help showcase the most relevant products, improving navigation and driving higher satisfaction.
• Search operation management with ease for business users through back-office processes that enable data-driven merchandising strategies, powered by integration with intelligent selling services. This ensures measurable impact and optimization of search experiences.

By combining modern technology with AI, the intelligent search service maximizes conversion rates and product views, delivering a natural and intuitive shopping experience. It helps retailers not only enhance customer satisfaction but also build long-term loyalty and lifetime value.

The service is planned for general availability on January 22, 2025. Customers can .

At 麻豆原创, we are committed to empowering businesses to deliver exceptional customer experience while driving profitable growth. By leveraging connected, insightful, and adaptive technology solutions, we help our customers put their customers at the center of their operations to build loyalty, foster innovation, and unlock new opportunities for success.

To learn more about 麻豆原创 CX, visit .

Balaji Balasubramanian is senior vice president and global head of Commerce and Industry Cloud at 麻豆原创.

Through Cyber Week, 麻豆原创 Commerce Cloud powered US$12.2B in gross merchandising value (GMV) for our customers, with a 23.42% year-over-year (YoY) increase in number of orders processed through the solution and 100% uptime. This level of success requires personalized customer engagement, and, for Cyber Week 2024, 麻豆原创 Emarsys Customer Engagement delivered a 10% YoY increase of overall engagement across all channels, with mobile channels seeing a 200% growth YoY.

But more than just numbers, we鈥檙e drawing insights and learnings from some of the largest brands we serve around the world.

Imitation Is a Form of Flattery for B2B Companies

Many industries have looked at how B2C retail companies reach their customers historically and used it as a model. This year, we saw our wholesale distribution customers running Black Friday and Cyber Week promotions to their customers 鈥� B2B buyers 鈥� with outstanding results. In fact, customers in the wholesale distribution industry saw a 125.2% increase YoY in GMV.

Holiday Shopping Continues to Start Earlier Each Year

E-mails, SMS, social ads, and more for Black Friday sales have been circulating since well before November 29^th. Understandably so, as retailers compete for market share. , retail sales saw an increase of 2.3% in October, which beat analyst predictions and is a good early indicator for the holiday shopping season. For 麻豆原创 customers in electronics, appliances, and personal care and beauty, we saw spikes in sales in mid- to late-October, which supports the U.S. Commerce Department鈥檚 findings.

However, getting started early doesn鈥檛 mean that retailers are simply shifting their sales and then finished. Instead, getting started early allows retailers to do both 鈥� lean into a first round of promotions earlier than the 鈥渟hopping season鈥� and a second round during peak Cyber Week shopping, leading to a higher total year-end volume. In addition, by providing two rounds of promotions, companies were able to capture customers who may have missed the initial offering. 麻豆原创 customers, particularly in the home improvement and personal care industries, were able to achieve this success with a 鈥渢wo-hit鈥� strategy.

Consumers Perceive Deals May Get Sweeter If They Wait

It鈥檚 been the belief for years that the best deals happen on Black Friday, but we鈥檝e seen a shift this year. Our data shows that on Cyber Monday the GMV values were significantly more than Black Friday, with an explosive 71.8% increase YoY. Was this trend due to shoppers rushing to take advantage of sales on the last day of the sales event? Or have shoppers been re-conditioned to wait for the best deals on Cyber Monday? We鈥檒l see if this shift has a stronghold in the upcoming years.

Cyber Week Isn鈥檛 About the American Thanksgiving Holiday Anymore

With the adoption of e-commerce and the desire to seek out deals, this major sale event has become a global phenomenon, and 麻豆原创 Commerce Cloud data shows it. Last year, we reported that the Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) region was comparable to North American sales, with the Asia Pacific and Japan (APJ) region showing explosive growth 鈥� and now it is official!听Our data shows EMEA with 139.6% and APJ with 49.7% Cyber Week GMV growth. Customers in countries like Germany (+314.3% GMV), the United Kingdom (+106.1% GMV), and South Korea (+12.3% GMV), continue to adopt this sales event, and it鈥檚 looking like a mainstay for the future.听

A Village Is Key to Success

To achieve this kind of success takes months of work from entire teams 鈥� both from our customers鈥� side and from 麻豆原创. By infusing artificial intelligence (AI) and automation tools to predict, prevent, and address issues proactively, our team of dedicated engineers created 360-degree action plans for our customers and created recommendations to help achieve peak holiday success. With 24×7 control room support, real-time monitoring, and risk mitigation, 麻豆原创 helped ensure seamless performance and availability during peak traffic periods like Black Friday and Cyber Monday, with 100% uptime, setting a new benchmark for holiday readiness.

To learn how 麻豆原创 Customer Experience solutions can help your organization drive transformational innovation, .

Balaji Balasubramanian is senior vice president and global head of Commerce & Industry Cloud at 麻豆原创.

Through Cyber Week, customers achieved over a 35% year-over-year (YoY) increase in the number of orders processed, an astounding amount of $110 million in peak gross merchandising value (GMV) per minute, and a 9.3% YoY increase in overall site traffic. Essential for driving site traffic and increasing conversions is customer engagement, and on Cyber Weekend, supported customers with a nine percent YoY increase of overall send volume across all channels. What鈥檚 more, 麻豆原创 Commerce Cloud customers achieved a 5.04% higher conversion rate versus 2022, and retailers saw a 5.2% higher conversion rate during Cyber Week.

This success was possible due to the reliability, scalability, and intelligence of for individually curated shopping journeys across the globe.

But at 麻豆原创, it is not just about the numbers. Deriving insights from data is at the heart of 麻豆原创 and the start to the holiday shopping season provided a treasure trove of learnings and understanding about how people are shopping and how retailers can optimize their experiences.

By serving some of the largest brands in the world through this holiday season, here is what we learned.

Insight One: The Definition of 鈥淗oliday Season鈥� Is Expanding

Traditionally, Black Friday is considered as a starting point for the holiday shopping season. However, recent research has revealed the holiday shopping is starting sooner and extending over the course of several weeks.

According to , an 麻豆原创 commerce media partner,  the longest path to purchase during the holidays is . This includes Singles Day, originated in China, on November 11 and El Buen Fin, Mexico鈥檚 version of Cyber Weekend from November 17 to November 20.

In 2023, 麻豆原创 Emarsys Customer Engagement saw a spike on Singles Day, nearly surpassing 1 billion customer engagements — for example, email, SMS, mobile push, and web push — two weeks ahead of Black Friday. This figure was then eclipsed not once but twice during El Buen Fin, which saw overall an approximate 30% YoY increase in messages delivered.

When looking at just email growth during this season, the growth of volume for the entire month of November was nearly twice what it was for Cyber Weekend. This not only underscores that holiday shopping is starting earlier, but how brands are scaling up sooner and avoiding sharp peaks, which is a win for deliverability too.

Newly emerging celebrations and extended shopping seasons also mean a higher and longer strain on e-commerce sites. However, 麻豆原创 Commerce Cloud prepared the customers to combat this challenge during these peak sales times leading up to Cyber Week, and delivered 100% uptime. In fact, customers that ran holiday sales events during El Buen Fin achieved 112% growth in conversion rate, with 10% higher traffic volume compared to the regular daily average of 2023.

Insight Two: Email Still Reigns, But Omnichannel Engagement Is Rapidly Growing

While overall 2023 holiday sales are expected to , online sales are expected to double and . More digitally advanced customer journeys and increasingly tech-savvy buyers present an exciting opportunity for businesses to engage with shoppers more often and on their preferred channels.

Aiming to capitalize on this opportunity and remain top of mind with shoppers, 麻豆原创 Emarsys customers sent a record number of omnichannel messages, resulting in a nine percent YoY increase in customer engagements from 2022. Email remained the top promotional channel in terms of volume and saw a respectable 10% YoY increase.

In addition to email, brands are also now investing heavily in omnichannel engagement strategies to meet customers where they prefer to shop. Mobile messages like SMS (35% YoY increase) and in-app (15% YoY increase) were utilized effectively alongside email, as were Web channel engagements, like Web push, which saw a whopping 74% increase in usage in 2023.

Insight Three: Personalization Proves Less is More

It is important to acknowledge that success does not equate to the quantity of messages, but also the quality. Bucking the notion that more is simply better, marketers using 麻豆原创 Emarsys increased utilization of data-driven segmentation by 20% compared to Cyber Weekend 2022, enabling more targeted offers and personalized messages. While conversion rates would naturally be expected to dip given the extra volume, this targeted and personalized approach contributed to minimal or no change compared to baseline conversion rates during a typical weekend.

Similarly, AI-powered product recommendations, delivered across channels, and also helped consumers find the right product or best deal  among the seemingly limitless choices — with confidence and ease. 

With consumers shopping for an extended period on more channels, brands have both an obligation to meet them where they are in their journey and an opportunity to earn their business and loyalty by investing in data-driven, omnichannel strategies that better match them with personalized offers on the items they wish to buy.

Insight Four: B2B Shoppers Share the Holiday Fever During Cyber Week

Black Friday is usually seen as an influential opportunity to create a revenue boost for retailers. However, 麻豆原创 has the privilege of working with many B2B commerce companies in addition to a large number of retailers.

According to our data, other industries outside of retail also experience the benefits of Black Friday and Cyber Monday pushes. While the retail industry had the highest volume of orders, consumer products and wholesale distribution came in close behind. Additionally, the chemicals industry saw a huge spike in AOV over the weekend and achieved a GMV increase of 51% YoY, while life sciences industry saw more than 120% YoY GMV growth.

These data points indicate that Cyber Week trends are no longer limited to retailers, as various industries now achieve bigger sales volume and revenue during this period. Moving forward, organizations across all industries must put their best foot forward during Cyber Weekend activities to support profitable growth.

Insight Five: Black Friday Isn鈥檛 Just About the U.S. Thanksgiving Holiday Anymore

The data from 麻豆原创 Commerce Cloud also reflects the globalization trend. While North America led the biggest GMV number on Black Friday, the Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) region is comparable. In fact, the highest number of orders, about 800,000, was placed in EMEA. Additionally, the Asia Pacific and Japan (APJ) region on Cyber Monday achieved over 130% growth in conversion rate compared to last year.

麻豆原创 Emarsys customers were also ready to leverage this trend and engage with customers around the world. On Cyber Monday, total send volumes saw significant YoY increases in multiple regions: by 20% in EMEA, over 27% in Middle and Eastern Europe (MEE), and over 15% in Asia.

The data also highlighted differences in how consumers shop and buy in different regions. Unsurprisingly email continued to be the most used channel across the board, though EMEA proved to be the only region, outside of the Americas, that saw high growth in email volume year-on-year with a 13% increase.

The MEE region saw a slight decrease in the use of email (-12% YoY) in favor of SMS, mobile push, and in-app messages. In APJ, where a mobile-first mindset is often the norm, usage of in-app (58% YoY growth) and mobile push (176% YoY growth) went up significantly compared to email growth (two percent YoY). Even in EMEA, SMS (53% YoY growth) and in-app (388% YoY growth) mobile messages outpaced email growth, underscoring the importance of an omnichannel strategy.

This data illustrates the global influence of Black Friday, what used to be considered an U.S.-specific sales event. For businesses across the globe, it is crucial to recognize this shift and consider customer behaviors, so they can adapt and evolve their commerce and channel engagement strategies to gain customer loyalty and boost profitability.

Next Step

As market trends evolve, organizations must proactively adopt strategies for profitable and sustainable growth. With the right blend of modern technologies, agile business processes, and customer centric strategies, businesses significantly benefit from extended shopping season, through personalized omnichannel engagements, increased conversions, and lifelong customer loyalty. 

Moreover, with the right choice of cloud technologies, organizations can remain secure and compliant, while delivering reliable, scalable, and personalized experiences that are optimized for their industries.

To learn more about how 麻豆原创 Customer Experience solutions can help, please .

Balaji Balasubramanian is senior vice president and global head of Commerce and Industry Cloud at 麻豆原创.

*All data presented here is approximate and is based on various assumptions. All data is unaudited and is subject to adjustment. All financial figures are in USD. Data represents online and offline sales made by 麻豆原创 global merchants.